WSU WorldCat (WWC) is a resource for discovering and locating books and articles from WSU libraries and other institutions. Users can create accounts to interact with resources, save searches, and share items via social tools. The guide also outlines how to create profiles, favorite libraries, and manage lists, tags, and reviews within the platform.

1. LIBRARIES REFERENCE GUIDE
Social Tools in WSU WorldCat
What is WSU WorldCat?
WSU WorldCat (WWC) allows you to discover and locate books from the WSU Libraries, and
also discover and order books located at other Washington and Oregon academic libraries
(Summit) and elsewhere (WorldCat). In addition to books, WWC also includes articles from
some of the databases available from the WSU Libraries.
WSU WorldCat provides users with the ability to interact with its contents and share them with
others through a variety of online social tools.
Bookmark & Share
This icon is located in the upper right corner of your screen when you look at a
WSU WorldCat result list or the individual record for a book or an article. Once
you click on it you will see links for posting items on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Delicious, and
many other social networking and social bookmarking sites. This is a great way to start
conversations about what you are reading or researching!
In the item view, you will also see an option to create a permalink - this creates a
URL that you can email or insert in a document or webpage that will always take you back to the
specific item you created it from. Just make sure the permalink includes washingtonstate.worldcat.org
at the start of the URL; if it doesn’t, you will need to manually edit it to add it in.
Your WorldCat Account
You can choose to create a separate WorldCat account (not part of your WSU Network ID) that
will enable you to create a public or private profile. This account is the key to much of WSU
WorldCat’s tools for interacting with its resources, including creating private or public book lists
and saved searches, and adding descriptive tags or reviews to books and articles. You can also
create search or list widgets that can be pasted into websites, blogs, and more.
To create your account, click on the WorldCat Sign In link in the upper right corner of the WSU
WorldCat website. You will be prompted to create a WorldCat user name and password and
accept WorldCat’s Terms of Service.
Creating Your WSU WorldCat Profile
Your profile can be public or private, and can include as much information as you care to
include. It allows you to share your interests, identify favorite libraries, create lists of books,
videos and articles you find, follow lists other people have created, create and save searches that
can be run at a click, write book or article reviews and/or assign ratings (1 to 5 stars), and tag
items with index terms that enable you to group similar things together and find related things
tagged by other WorldCat users.
Favorite Libraries
To add the WSU Libraries as a favorite, click on the down arrow next to Search at the top of the
WSU WorldCat screen and select Search for a Library. Type in Washington State University,

2. and then click on the Add as Favorite link - . All WSU users should select the
main WSU location; regional campus users and Pullman branch users may also want to select
their own specific library location, although in mosts cases there will not be a separate caatlog.
Look for other local or favorite public or academic libraries by name, city, or zipcode.
Lists
If you are in a result list you can add something to a list by checking the box next to the title and
then clicking on the down arrow next to the Save To box. You can create a new list or use one of
the ones WorldCat automatically provides. Click the Save button to complete the process.
You’ll see a confirmation that the item was added to your list, with a link to the list. If you click
the link, you can click on the Settings link and make the list public or private and write up a brief
description of the list (if you were not logged in you will be prompted to log in to your WorldCat
account).. You can also add a note and/or one or more tags (index terms) to the item you saved,
and see other items that you had previously added. More notes and tags can be added at any time.
If you are looking at an item record, you will see an Add to List link above and to the right of the
item’s title. (note the other options for getting the item formatted in various citation styles, email-
ing the record, sharing it, or creating a permalink). You can also subscribe to a list via RSS.
You can search for lists by going to Search at the top of the WorldCat screen and finding it in the
drop-down menu. If an item is on one or more lists they will be linked at the bottom of the WSU
WorldCat record for that item.
Saved Searches
If you know you will want to repeat a WSU WorldCat search at a later time, you can choose to
save the search by clicking on the Save Search button located to the right of the Save to List box.
Saved searches can be named and described and made public or private.
To run the search later just log in to WSU WorldCat,
go to your profile page, and click on the search name
under the Saved Searches header.
Tags
Tags can be added when an item is saved to a list, or to any item by clicking on the Add Tags
link at the bottom of the
items record (if you are not
logged in you will be
prompted to log in with
your WorldCat account).
When you click on a tag
you will see all items in your lists and others that have been given that tag.
Reviews and Ratings
Reviews may be found near the bottom of each item record. WSU WorldCat pulls in book
reviews from book reviewing publications (“editorial reviews”) such as Library Journal,
Publishers Weekly, etc. It also includes user-contributed reviews. Some are from websites such

3. as WeRead and Amazon; others come from WorldCat users. If you want to add a review yourself
just click on User-contributed Reviews then the Add a review link. You must be logged in to
your WorldCat account to add a review. You can rate a book and/or write a full review. Reviews
will be public and linked to your WorldCat user name.
Journal articles will not have editorial reviews, but can have user-contributed reviews from
WorldCat users.
Search Boxes and Widgets
If you would like to add a search box or list widget to a webpage or blog you will need to visit
http://www.worldcat.org/ and look in the lower right corner for WorldCat Tools. You can’t get
to the tools page directly from the WSU Worldcat page; it has to be from the
http://www.worldcat.org link.
From the http://www.worldcat.org page - click on the tool links and copy the appropriate code.
Being sure to change the URLs for Widgets and Plug-ins, Apps & Downloads, and Links to
washingtonstate.worldcat…When you paste in the appropriate code to a blog, webpage, or
feedreader, always make sure the WorldCat link is washingtonstate.worldcat… and not
www.worldcat... .
A Note about Multiple WorldCats…
WSU WorldCat is part of a family of WorldCats, so its specific website URL is
http://washingtonstate.worldcat.org. Other libraries may have their own versions of WorldCat,
such as http://washington.worldcat.org (U of Washington) or http://uidaho.worldcat.org (U of
Idaho). In order to get the full benefit of Summit, Find it@ WSU, ArticleReach and other WSU
Libraries resources and services you will always want to be sure that your WorldCat links start
with http://washingtonstate.worldcat.org.
Available in alternative format upon request 12//09 Lorena O’English oenglish@wsu.edu